Elizabeth Ross www.dairyfuturescrc.com.au. Thankyou: Ben Hayes. Ben Cocks.
Kathryn Guthridge. Peter Moate. Leah Marett ...
Metagenomic Predictions: Predicting enteric methane production from the rumen microbiome
Elizabeth Ross / August 2012
CH4 Measurements – Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas >20x stronger than CO2
– Measuring CH4 is:
– Produced in the rumen
2. Stressful / training required
– Negative correlation with FCE
3. Expensive
– Environmental concerns
4. Low throughput
1. Difficult
Rumen Microbes – Humans have 10x more bacterial than human cells – 25x more bacteria in the rumen than cow cells – Significant associations between microbiome and health in humans – CH4 is produced by methanogens in the cow rumen – Is there a strong association between methane production and the rumen microbiome in lactating Australian dairy cattle?
Method Sequence microbiome: metagenome
Ensure metagenomes are repeatable
Use ‘extreme phenotypes’ to predict methane in FCE herd
Collect ‘extreme phenotypes’ samples
Conclusions – Rumen profiles are repeatable – Likely that rumen profiles have a large effect on CH4 production – Currently only have small datasets – More phenotyped animals needed
Future Work – Predicting CH4 in large numbers of animals – Rumen profiles from tongue/mouth swabs – GWAS for CH4 using microbiome profiles – Metagenomic predictions of other traits (e.g. FCE)
Elizabeth Ross
www.dairyfuturescrc.com.au Thankyou: Ben Hayes Ben Cocks Kathryn Guthridge Peter Moate Leah Marett
